System and method of managing large data files

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems and software that provide a high-performance, extensible file format and web API for remote data access and a visual interface for data viewing, query, and analysis. The described system supports can support storage of raw spectroscopic data such as neural recording data, MSI data, metadata, and derived analyses in a single, self-describing format that may be compatible by a large range of analysis software.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e)of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/732,328, filed on Dec. 1, 2012,U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/827,516, filed on May 24, 2013, U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/962,290, filed on Jul. 15, 2013, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/870,741, filed on Aug. 27, 2013, theentirety of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED R&D

This invention was made with government support under Contract No.DE-AC02-05CH11231 awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Thegovernment has certain rights in the invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to systems and methods of managing andvisualizing large data sets, such as neurosensory data, spectroscopicdata, other types of scientific and non-scientific data, and so forth.More specifically, embodiments may include high-performance, advanceddata management, model building, analysis, and visualization systems forneural recording and/or mass spectrometry imaging.

2. Description of the Related Art

In neurosensory analyses, neural activities from a large number ofneurons can be recorded and such recordings produce a large of amount ofdata. The number of neurons that may be simultaneously recorded hasincreased in recent years. The storage of such neural recording data, aswell as the high-performance retrieval, analysis, modeling, andvisualization of the neural recording data, present a significantchallenge. Traditional techniques are insufficient for storing,interacting, and modeling large-scale neural recording datasets.Moreover, current data file formats are insufficient for meeting suchneeds.

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a technology that is widely appliedto image complex samples for DOE-funded program applications spanninghealth (Low Dose SFA), microbial ecology (ENIGMA), and energy sciences(JBEI). Unfortunately, the scale of MSI data and other types ofspectroscopic data and the complexities of analyzing these large datasets present a barrier to scientists. In some cases, a single 2D-image,that may be 60 GB in size and comparison of multiple images, is beyondthe computational capabilities available to most scientists. Usingcurrently available instruments, MSI datasets with 10⁶ pixels and 10⁶mass bins could be easily acquired, resulting in a raw file size of 4TB.

Spectroscopic techniques such as MSI are also rapidly becoming awidespread analytical technique. In recent years, sample preparationmethodologies, desorption-ionization techniques, and imaging massspectrometry equipment have advanced to a point where standard practicescan be followed yielding high quality data, and thereby enabling directinterrogation of the spatial distribution of metabolites and proteinswithin cells and tissues. Spectroscopic techniques such as MSI arefinding widespread application in life science, bio-engineering, drugdevelopment, and studies of metabolic processes and promises to enabletransformative medical diagnostics and large-scale scientificexperiments.

In MSI and other spectroscopic methods, many spatially defined massspectra are acquired across a sample. In the raw form, the data for eachposition is represented as a profile of intensity values over acorresponding range of mass-to-charge (m/z) values. Modern massspectrometers are capable of resolving mass differences many orders ofmagnitude below the integer mass of a molecule and can accuratelymeasure the m/z values to approximately the mass of a single electron,generating massive and highly complex datasets.

Despite numerous advances in analysis of neurosensory, spectroscopicdatasets, and other types of datasets, such as MSI datasets, widespreadadoption of neurosensory and/or spectroscopy analysis is hindered by alack of fast and easy-to-use approaches for sharing, managing, accessingand provenance of raw spectroscopic data and derived analyses. Whilenumerous open standards have been proposed for storage of neurosensory,spectroscopic data, and so forth (e g, imzML or mzML and so forth), noneof the current formats efficiently support standard data accesspatterns, such as reading of ion images and often introduce largestorage overheads. This lack in performance already at the file-formatlevel makes visual data exploration and high-performance, complex dataanalysis challenging.

In current practices, spectroscopic data, such as MSI data, is sometimesbinned in order to support visual data exploration in an unstructuredand non-standardized way that impedes data sharing. Yet, analysis ofunbinned, raw data can be important to harness the ever-increasingaccuracy and resolution of mass spectrophotometry for discriminating andidentifying ions. Furthermore, storage of metadata about a sample,experiment, or acquisition can be largely undefined and not managed in astructured manner. Lastly, current neurosensory and/or spectroscopicdata formats, including MSI data formats, do not support storage andprovenance of derived results, hindering sharing and reproducibility ofanalyses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a system for neurosensory analysis(such as neural recording) data processing.

FIG. 1B illustrates one embodiment of a system for spectroscopic (suchas mass spectrometry imaging) data processing.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of an overview of the OpenMSI fileformat hierarchy.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data provenancegraph for spectroscopic (such as mass spectrometry imaging) data.

FIG. 4 is an illustrative example of the design of an OpenMSI URL fordata requests, data retrieval, and an illustrative example of anapplication interacting with the OpenMSI system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the size difference between originaldata and the OpenMSI HDF5 data.

FIG. 6A illustrates serial read performances of a common data accesspattern in which 25 m/z slices are read.

FIG. 6B illustrates serial read performances of a common data accesspattern in which 3×3 spectra are read.

FIG. 6C illustrates serial read performances of a common data accesspattern in which 20×20×1000 sub-cubes are read.

FIG. 6D illustrates details regarding each test dataset, includingspatial (x,y) and spectra (m/z) resolutions, size, and size of the autochunks.

FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating web-based read performances for a testdataset with image dimensions of 122×120.

FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating web-based read performances for imagedimensions of 250×160.

FIG. 7C is a diagram illustrating web-based read performances for imagedimensions of 394×518.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example OpenMSI web-based viewer applicationshowing the ion-image viewer on the left and the spectrum plots for twoselected locations (marked by cross-hair cursors) on the right.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example OpenMSI web-based viewer applicationwherein raw spectroscopic data may also be displayed for users.

FIG. 10 illustrates a layout commonly used for storing spectroscopicdata (such as MSI data) in binary form.

FIG. 11 illustrates different basic chunked data layouts for storage ofspectroscopic data (e.g., MSI data).

FIG. 12 shows the minimum, median, and maximum time for reading 25consecutive ion-images from a 100×100×100,000 test dataset.

FIG. 13 illustrates, for the read of 25 ion-images, better readperformance for hybrid chunked data layouts with larger spatial xy chunksizes and smaller z chunk sizes is observed.

FIG. 14 illustrates, for the read of a random 5×5 subset of fullspectra, better read performance for chunked data layouts with largerspatial z chunk sizes is observed.

FIG. 15 illustrates the median read performance for the selective readof a random 5×5×100 sub-volumes of the test data.

FIG. 16 illustrates the overall performance of the different datasetlayouts and to identify the “best” layouts.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram that illustrates an example embodiment of anOpenMSI system with various system components and modules.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram illustrating one example of a data chunking,storage and retrieval system according to some embodiment of the OpenMSIsystem.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein are systems for presenting neurosensory, spectroscopic,and other types of large-scale data to a user computer, the systemsincluding: an interface to a data storage device configured to storeneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data and associated metadata; a firststorage module configured to store the neurosensory and/or spectroscopicdata, analysis data, and the associated metadata as one or more ofindividual spectrally aligned data chunks, image aligned data chunks,and hybrid data chunks, wherein the stored data chunks comprisessub-blocks of the spectroscopic data; and a user interface moduleconfigured to retrieve ion image slices, spectral data, or arbitrarysub-cubes from the stored data chunks and graphically display theretrieved data and the associated metadata to the user computer.

In accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium comprises computer-executableinstructions that when executed direct a computing system to: storeneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data, analysis data, and metadata asone or more of individual spectrally aligned data chunks, image aligneddata chunks, and hybrid data chunks, and wherein the stored data chunkscomprise sub-blocks of the spectroscopic data; and retrieve imageslices, spectra data, or arbitrary sub-cubes from the stored data chunksand graphically display the retrieved data and the metadata to a usercomputer.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, acomputer-implemented method comprises obtaining neurosensory and/orspectroscopic data and associated metadata from an imaging device;storing the neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data and associatedmetadata as one or more of individual spectrally aligned data chunks,image aligned data chunks, and hybrid data chunks to a storage, whereinthe stored data chunks comprise sub-blocks of the s neurosensory and/orspectroscopic data; retrieving ion image slices, spectra data, orarbitrary sub-cubes from the stored data chunks in response to a userrequest; and graphically displaying the retrieved spectroscopic data andmetadata to a user's computer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Introduction

Embodiments relate to data analysis software and systems for analyzingand viewing large datasets. As used to analyze and view neurosensory,spectroscopic data, and other types of large-scale data, including,e.g., neural recording data, mass spectroscopy data, and so forth, oneembodiment of the system is termed herein “OpenMSI” although embodimentsare not limited to only mass spectroscopy data. Embodiments of thesystem may also process, store, analyze, and present all kinds ofneurosensory data, spectral data or spectroscopy data generated from anyneural recording method and any spectroscopic method including but notlimited to absorption, auger, cavity ring down, circular dichroism,coherent anti-Stokes Raman, cold vapor atomic fluorescence, correlation(several types of 2-dimensional NMR spectroscopy), deep-level transient,dual polarization interferometry, EPR, elastic scattering andreflection, inelastic scattering, inelastic electron tunnelingspectroscopy (IETS), emission, energy, force, Fourier transform,frequency, hadron, hyperspectral imaging, Laser-Induced BreakdownSpectroscopy (LIBS), Mossbauer, photoacoustic, photothermal, pump-probe,Raman optical activity, Raman spectroscopy, transmission, reflectance,impedance, resonance (e.g., acoustic resonance), scanning tunneling,spectrophotometry, molecular vibration (e.g. vibrational circulatordichorism), fluorescence, nuclear magnetic resonance, thermal, infrared,atomic force, time-resolved, time-stretch, ultraviolet photoelectron(UPS), X-ray, and/or secondary emission spectroscopic methods, etc.

In addition, the OpenMSI platform is well suited for access, analysis,and visualization of large data sets from a variety of scientific andnon-scientific domains. The OpenMSI system's file format, data storageand data access solutions, and data analysis functionality are suitablefor interacting with large-scale scientific and non-scientific datasets.The OpenMSI's client interface, which may be based on web browsers, canquickly provide the proof of principle for many types of datasets andapplications. For example, beyond the fields of mass spectrometryimaging and neural recordings, the OpenMSI system may be used to store,analyze, and/or visualize data generated from hundreds or even thousandsof sensors in a damaged wetland area with records of monitoredtemperature, pH, salinity, and/or flow-rate, etc. Furthermore, theOpenMSI system can be used to store, analyze, and/or visualize datagenerated by sensors on one or more boats, for example, participating ina competition. A boat may have several thousand sensors recordingeverything possible at as many locations as possible on the boat.

For example, the system described herein may also be configured toefficiently access, store, and analyze data from chromatography that mayor may not be coupled to mass spectrometry, spectral image data wherethe spectrum is determined by the wavelength of light being measured, orspectral image data where the spectrum is derived from secondary effectssuch as x-ray photoelectrons. Embodiments of the data analysis systemplatform can provide an advanced, high-performance, extensible fileformat and web Application Programming Interface (API) for remote dataaccess. The system's file format may also support storage of rawspectroscopic (such as MSI) data, metadata, and derived analyses in asingle, self-describing format based on the Hierarchical Data Formatknown as HDF5. The system's file format may also support storage ofneurosensory data, including, neural recording data, metadata, andderived analyses in a single, self-describing format based on theHierarchical Data Format known as HDF5. This format is supported by alarge range of analysis software, including Matlab® and R, andprogramming languages, such as C++, Fortran and Python.

As discussed below, optimization of the storage layout of MSI datasetswere found to accelerate common, selective data access operations byseveral orders of magnitude while minimizing data storage requirements.Using embodiments of the system, custom data analyses and data fromother recording and/or imaging modalities can now be integrated with theselected file format and show how this new data format facilitates dataprovenance. Due to the ever-growing size of some datasets, particularlywith large-scale datasets such as neurosensory, spectroscopic datasets,and so forth, such as MSI datasets, it is often not possible to storeand analyze large datasets using locally available compute capacities.Instead, dedicated high-performance computing resources may be needed.As discussed, embodiments of this invention provide a web API thatenables fast and convenient access to neurosensory, spectroscopic data,and so forth (such as MSI data), metadata and derived analysis resultsstored remotely. The OpenMSI system's file format, storage system, andweb API enable access to neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data (such asneural recording data, MSI data, and so forth) and straightforwardintegration of neurosensory and/or spectroscopic technologies withmodern analyses methods, web technologies and client side libraries.Optimization of data layouts in some embodiments use data chunking,compression, and data replication which were found to enable rapid dataaccess and resulted in a greater than 2000-fold improvement in imageaccess speed. In some cases, the OpenMSI system platform enabled dataretrieval speeds of less than 0.3 seconds across the Internet, even for50 GB-sized MSI datasets.

One embodiment includes an electronic system configured to manage andpresent neural recording data and/or mass spectrometry imaging data to auser's computer. One aspect of the system is an interface to a datastorage configured to store neural recording data and/or massspectrometry imaging data and associated metadata. It should be realizedthat this interface may be a direct connection to the data storage, oran indirect interface, such as through the Internet or other wide areaor local area network. The electronic system may also include a firststorage module configured to store the received neural recording and/ormass spectrometry imaging data and metadata in one or more of spectrallyaligned data chunks, image aligned data chunks, and hybrid data chunks.In some embodiments, data chunks are sub-blocks of spectrometry imagingdata. In addition, the system may include a user interface moduleconfigured to retrieve ion image slices, m/z spectra data or arbitrarysub-cubes from the stored data chunks and graphically display theaccessed neural recording and/or mass spectrometry imaging data andmetadata to the user.

The OpenMSI file format, file and analysis API and Web API, build thefoundation of an OpenMSI science resource. In some embodiments, allsoftware components of the system may be implemented in Python using theh5py library to interact with HDF5 and using the Django web applicationframework for web-related tasks. However, it should be realized thatembodiments of the invention are not limited to any particular softwareformat or programming language. In some embodiments, the OpenMSI systemincludes a storage module that uses a new file format for storing rawlarge scale datasets, such as neurosensory, spectroscopic data (such asMSI data) and so forth, derived analysis, and metadata in a single fileusing a portable, efficient, parallel, self-describing file format basedon HDF5.

Also, in some embodiments, the OpenMSI system can include a userinterface module with an API that interacts with the file format anddescribes the optimization of the data-layout using chunking,compression, and data duplication to accelerate the most common dataaccess operations and to reduce storage cost. The OpenMSI system mayalso include interfaces and modules including an easy-to-use web-basedAPI for accessing large scale datasets, such as neurosensory,spectroscopic data (such as MSI data, neural recording data) and soforth and derived analyses stored remotely via the web. Finally, theOpenMSI system can include interfaces and modules, including an API thatfacilitates the integration of custom data analyses with the OpenMSIfile format and web API. Overall this OpenMSI platform addresses many ofthe data challenges to large scale data analysis such as neurosensory,spectroscopic data (such as MSI data) and so forth, by making advanced,high-performance data analysis and computing easily accessible toneuroscience and spectroscopy scientists, by enabling fast sharing andaccess to raw MSI data and other neurosensory and/or spectroscopic dataand derived analyses via the web (see, e.g., FIG. 1).

II. MSI Data and Analysis Requirements

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a system 100 for neurosensory data(such as neural recording) processing. In some neurosensory analyses,neural recordings 105 may be represented in a manner that is analogousto a 3-dimensional image. A coordinate (e.g., pixel) may be used torecord from one or more neurons. The neural recording 105 is analogousto spectra, and is in fact a time trace of electrical activity 110 atthat location. Because the physical location of the neural recording isknown, a neural recording 105 of electrical activity 110 at a pluralityof positions may be done and represented as an image of electricalactivity at one or more points in time.

In some embodiments, more than one type of sensory devices may be usedat each position. These devices can measure electrical, photonic, andbiochemical data. Consequently, the recordings at a given position couldcontain many neural recordings data and even spectral data. In addition,these recordings may be taken in concert with many other observationsincluding sensory motor control, gross-neural activity, motion,activities, thought, and many other phenomena.

According to some embodiments, the neural activity recording data may betransferred to a remote data center 115 and integrated into the OpenMSIsystem and its omsi fileformat. The OpenMSI system's data access anddata storage solutions provide efficient means to return time-traces andspectra at one or more positions. Likewise, the OpenMSI's data storageand data access solutions can also provide efficient return of thespatial “image” of activity at a given data slice. Moreover, theseresults may be presented to a user in a web-browser 120 throughgraphical displays that are highly interactive. This highly interactiveuser experience is a significant improvement over the traditional datavisualization approaches for neurosensory data, which are usually slowerand less interactive.

FIG. 1B illustrates one embodiment of a system for spectroscopic data(such as mass spectrometry) processing. In some embodiments,spectroscopic data 130, such as MSI data, may be acquired at a lab andtransferred for more processing and data storage. Raw spectroscopic dataand derived analysis results may be visualized and further analyzed viathe web using an interactive web interface. 145. As shown in FIG. 1B, amass spectrophotometer is used to desorb and ionize molecules andgenerate spectra. The spectroscopic data 130 from the massspectrophotometer is transferred to a large capacity data storage site140 for later analysis. Once the data is stored in the proper format thedata storage site 140, such as the National Energy Research ScientificComputer Center (NERSC), it can be made available through the OpenMSIsystem to Internet browsers for rapid evaluation by scientists. In someother embodiments, other types of large-scale data from other externaldata sources may also be acquired and analyzed using the data storage,access, and analysis framework described herein. For example, the systemdescribed herein may also be configured to efficiently access, store,and analyze data generated by absorption, emission, energy, frequency,and/or secondary emission. The system described herein may also beconfigured to efficiently access, store, and analyze data fromchromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and or other spectroscopicmethods.

However, storage and management of neurosensory and/or spectroscopicdata (such as MSI data) is challenging; the data is extremely large,shows large differences between spatial and mass resolution (three tofour orders of magnitude), and may require fast orthogonal accesses tospectra and ion images. A 2D MSI (or other spectroscopy) dataset can bedescribed as a three-dimensional cube of (x,y,m/z). Current 2D raw MSI(or other spectroscopy) datasets contain spectra from hundreds ofthousands of positions with each position containing one or morespectra. Each spectrum, describes the distribution of masses at a givenimage location (pixel) and typically consists of 10⁵ to 10⁷ integerintensity values. Using currently available instruments, neurosensoryand/or spectroscopic datasets (e.g., MSI datasets) with 10⁶ pixels and10⁶ mass bins could be easily acquired, resulting in a raw size of 4 TB.

In practice, large-scale data, such as neurosensory data, spectroscopicdata (such as MSI data) and so forth, is typically used in a write-onceread-many fashion, i.e., the data is written once during dataacquisition and read repeatedly during the visualization and analysisprocess. For instance, many visualization and analysis algorithms do notprocess the full neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data cube (such asMSI data cube) at once but rely on repeated selective read of: i)spectra, ii) ion-images, and iii) arbitrary 3D subsets of the data.

Analysis of complex neurosensory and/or spectroscopic datasets (such asMSI datasets) is challenging and is commonly based on highly complex andinterconnected analysis pipelines consisting of various datapre-processing (e.g., background correction), data reduction (e.g., peakfinding), data integration (e.g., peak image computation), dimensionreduction (e.g., PCA or NMF), and feature detection and clustering steps(e.g, kmeans). Making advanced data analyses easily accessible tonon-expert users can facilitate widespread use of MSI and otherneurosensory and/or spectroscopic methods.

Finally, to facilitate distributed, inter-disciplinary, collaborativeanalyses of neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data and to enable thescientific community to share and benefit from results from MSI andother spectroscopy techniques, researchers may be able to share data andanalysis results with other researchers around the world and the MSI andspectroscopy community at large. An appropriately designed file format,such as that described herein, is self-describing, platform independent,and easily accessible via a large range of programming languages andanalysis systems.

III. OpenMSI File Format and API

In some embodiments, the OpenMSI system may include a custom file formatthat is an extensible, portable, self-describing, and parallel-awareneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data (such as MSI data) file formatbased on HDF5. HDF5 is a suite of technologies, consisting of aversatile data model, portable data format, and a widely accessiblesoftware library and API, which include a rich set of integratedfeatures for optimization of I/O performance and tools for managing,viewing and manipulation of HDF5 data collections. In some embodiments,OpenMSI files may define valid HDF5 files so that the standard HDF5 APIsand tools can be used to interact with OpenMSI (also referred to as“omsi”) files. This allows extensibility of the OpenMSI system's format.In some other embodiments, file formats other than HDF5, including otherdata storage system (e.g., database systems) and combinations thereof,may be used or customized by the OpenMSI system to achieve flexible andstructured large-scale data storage capabilities.

Portability of the OpenMSI system's format means that OpenMSI files canbe used directly without change on architectures and operating systemsfor which HDF5 is available. HDF5 is available for Windows andUnix-based systems—including Linux and MacOS—and well-supported HDF5APIs exist for common programming languages, e.g., C, C++, Fortran, orPython, and many advanced visualization and analyses systems, such as,Matlab® and R, support HDF5 natively. Self-describing of the OpenMSIsystem's format means that all information about the data hierarchy,data types, etc. are directly encoded in the HDF5 files so that a usercan, without prior knowledge about the file, explore the file hierarchyand load data similar to how one browses files and directories on a filesystem.

In the following we now first describe how data is organized in theOpenMSI data format according to some embodiments of the disclosure. Insome other embodiments, the portability of the OpenMSI system may meanthat the OpenMSI files and its cross-platform compatibility can beachieved with using the HDF5 format. Instead, other file formats orsystems may be used to store large scale data such as neurosensory,spectroscopic data, and so forth, such as MSI data.

In HDF5, data may be stored as multi-dimensional data arrays. HDF5supports a large range of standard data types as well as complexuser-defined compound data types. Similar to directories in filesystems, datasets can be organized via so-called groups in HDF5. Inaddition, according to some embodiments of this disclosure, groups anddatasets may be assigned additional attributes. Attributes can bemetadata objects describing the nature and/or intended usage of aprimary data object, e.g., dataset or group. In some embodiments,instead of multi-dimensional data arrays, another data structure may beused to store the neurosensory, spectroscopic data, and so forth, suchas MSI datasets.

FIG. 2 describes a file object embodiment 200 according to thedisclosure, showing a storage module 210's organization of rawneurosensory, spectroscopic data, and so forth, such as MSI data,metadata, and derived analyses via groups and datasets in OpenMSI HDF5data files. In some embodiments, OpenMSI files contain a root group.Data associated with a particular imaging experiment may then be storedin a corresponding /entry_# group. This allows for convenient storage ofdata from multiple related experiments in a single OpenMSI file. Each/entry_# group may contain a simple string dataset/entry#/experiment_identifier used to name and uniquely identify theexperiment. Metadata describing the instrument and sample associatedwith the experiment may then be stored in separate /entry_#/instrumentand /entry_#/sample groups. Since the HDF5 format is self-describing,custom metadata may be added to the sample and instrument groups withoutviolating the OpenMSI file format. Raw neurosensory, spectroscopic data,and so forth, such as MSI data and derived analysis results may then bestored in dedicated /entry_#/data_# and /entry#/analysis_#. This dataorganization allows the OpenMSI system to store an arbitrary number ofraw neurosensory, spectroscopic datasets, and so forth, and derivedanalyses for each experiment represented by a /entry_# group. Otherstrings and names may also be used to represent the organization of thestorage module 210. Moreover, in some other embodiments, the hierarchyof the strings, for example, the sequence of “entry,”“experiment-identifier,” and “analysis”, etc., may be different. TheFile Object Legend 220 illustrates various types of datasets and symbolsrepresenting each type of dataset as shown in FIG. 2.

The OpenMSI file format API then follows an object-oriented design thatmodels the group hierarchy of the file format. In some embodiments, eachmain HDF5 group is represented in the API by a corresponding classresponsible for creation, management, and access of the correspondingHDF5 group type. In some embodiments of the disclosure, groups with acorresponding API class are referred to as managed groups. The classtype that may be used to access a particular group can be uniquelydetermined based on the naming scheme describe above or a similar namingscheme. In some embodiments, optional HDF5 attributes are associatedwith all main groups to indicate the interface class and version numberof the class that should be used to interact with the group to achieveincreased flexibility and extensibility of the file format.

According to some embodiments of this disclosure, raw neurosensory,spectroscopic data, and so forth, such as MSI data, may be stored in a/entry_#/data_# group rather than directly in an HDF5 dataset, whichprovides the OpenMSI system with great flexibility with respect to thedata layout and storage of additional associated datasets. For example,in the embodiment where the raw data defines a complete 3D MSI data cube(or other 3D neurosensory data cube, spectroscopic data cube), each data# group contains i) a string dataset data_#/format indicating the dataformat used, ii) a 1D floating-point array data_#/mz with the m/z valuesfor the spectrum dimension and iii) a 3D array data_#/data_# with the 3DMSI data cube (or other 3D neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data cube).This design provides the OpenMSI system with great flexibility in thatthe OpenMSI system can organize neurosensory, spectroscopic data, and soforth, such as MSI data in different formats (indicated by thedata_#/format string) optimized for different practical cases.

In some other embodiments, for example, to avoid possibly large storageoverheads by storing an uncompressed, full 3D cube even if only a smallregion of interest has been imagined, the particular embodiment of theOpenMSI file API may support storage of mass spectra as a 2D datasets ofspectra along with additional small index datasets to record therelationship between spatial (x,y) locations and spectra. The embodimentof the OpenMSI file format and API enables the OpenMSI system toflexibly extend the OpenMSI system and its file format to accommodateother optimized large scale data storage formats, as well as tointegrate data from other imaging modalities, such as, light microscopy.Organizing raw neurosensory, spectroscopic data, and so forth such asMSI data in an HDF5 group, allows the OpenMSI system to also storemultiple copies of the same data as numbered instances of data_#/data_#datasets. As described herein, multiple copies of the same data may bestored in the OpenMSI system, and using different data layouts cansignificantly accelerate orthogonal selective data accesses.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, in some embodiments, the OpenMSI system's fileformat and API may follow the same semantic hierarchy to enable fast andefficient file processing, storage, and retrieval. Each main HDF5 (orany other format) group may be managed in a file format API by acorresponding class responsible for providing access to and creating thedirect content of the group in the file.

According to some embodiments of this disclosure, the omsi_file_msidatainterface class is designed to provide convenient access to raw MSI dataindependent of the data format used. In some embodiments, the classprovides an array-based interface which allows a user to interact withthe data as a 3D data cube independent of whether the large-scale data,such as a MSI dataset, is stored as a full 3D cube or in a reduced dataformat. In cases that multiple copies of the same dataset are available,the interface also automatically determines the data copy that is bestsuited to resolve a given data request. In some other embodiments, theinterface class is designed to provide a convenient interface to otherdata structure or data storage schemes besides array-based interfaces,such as hash-table based interfaces, etc. Providing a consistent datainterface, independent of the underlying storage format, significantlysimplifies the access to the data and eases development of data analysisalgorithms. At the same time, the omsi_file_msidata interface may alsoallow the developer to directly access all datasets stored within thecorresponding data_# group, enabling development of optimized algorithmsthat are designed to take advantage of different data organizations.

Data stored in /entry_#/analysis_# groups, describing derived analysisresults, may also be managed by instances of the omsi_file_analysis APIclass. Depending on the embodiment, an analysis group may contain: i) astring dataset analysis_identifier used to name and uniquely identifythe analysis, ii) a string dataset analysis_type indicating the analysisclass that was used to compute the analysis, iii) a group for storinguser defined analysis parameters, iv) a group for storing analysisdependencies, and v) an arbitrary number of datasets with analysisresults. The omsi_file_analysis interface class is designed to allow thedeveloper to easily store and retrieve custom analysis data withouthaving to know the underlying data file format. As disclosed herein, tostore and retrieve custom analysis data, the developer/user simply needsto provide an instance of the omsi_analysis_base analysis API class toomsi_file_analysis, which in turn handles storing the analysis data,parameters and dependencies in the OpenMSI file as well as restoring ofthe data from file.

A. Data Provenance

Data provenance provides a historical record of data and its origins bydocumenting the inputs, entities, systems and processes that influencedata of interest, providing critical evidence to study datadependencies, detect and recover errors and auditing of analyses.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a data provenancegraph for mass spectrometry imaging and/or other types of large-scaledata. In order to reproduce derived analysis results, a user needs to beable to retrace how the analysis was performed and how it depends onprevious analysis steps. Depending on the embodiment, for an analysis,the OpenMSI system may store in the HDF5 file: i) the output of theanalysis in a managed group /analysis_#, ii) all input parameters in adedicated group /analysis_#/parameter and iii) dependency information ina dedicated group /analysis_#/dependencies. For a dependency, theOpenMSI system may store the name of the dependent input parameter, thepath to the corresponding managed group (or HDF5 dataset), and if onlyparts of the dataset were used in the analysis, the correspondingselection. The OpenMSI system stores and manages dependency informationdirectly in the file format and API, rather than using HDF5 hard or softlinks, because this mechanism makes the dependencies explicit and allowsfor flexible extension of dependencies with additional information inthe future. Using this approach, the OpenMSI system can reconstruct foreach analysis all its inputs and direct dependencies on prior analysisor raw neurosensory, spectroscopic datasets, and so forth, such as MSIdatasets. This information is sufficient to reconstruct the completeanalyses tree for a given experiment, describing all analyses and MSIdatasets (nodes) and their inter-(edges) (see, e.g., FIG. 3).

Data provenance is important not only for derived analyses but also forraw MSI data. As described in the previous section, for experiments, theOpenMSI system can store a diverse set of metadata information in theinstrument and sample groups, describing how the raw neurosensory and/orspectroscopic datasets (such as MSI datasets) were acquired. In someembodiments, besides traditional metadata information in the instrumentand sample groups, other metadata from other sources, for example, incases where data has been transferred in from an outside data source,the name/origin/experiments involved in the outside data source, mayalso be kept and stored. In cases where different large-scale (such asMSI) datasets associated with the same experiment have been acquiredusing different instruments, the OpenMSI system may optionally includeseparate instrument and sample groups as part of the large-scale datagroups, such as neurosensory and/spectroscopic data storage groups, andso forth, i.e., data_# (not shown in FIG. 2). This may be important, forexample, in the case of MSMS experiments (or other experiments regardingneurosensory, spectroscopic data, and so forth) in which secondarydiffraction mass spectra are acquired for select ranges of the primarymass spectra of a sample. In this case the OpenMSI system may generateadditional data_# storage for each unique refined m/z range. Similar toderived analyses, the OpenMSI system may, in some embodiments, documentthe dependencies between the secondary neurosensory and/or spectroscopicdata groups and the primary neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data viaadditional data #/dependencies storage groups.

B. Data Layout Optimization

In some embodiments, while HDF5 natively supports multi-dimensionalarrays, on disk the data is linearized to a 1-dimensional data stream.The data layout describes the strategy by which the data is linearized.Traditional binary formats typically simply flatten the large-scaledata, such as neurosensory data, spectroscopic (such as MSI) data, andso forth, into a single monolithic block on disk by storing theneurosensory and/or spectroscopic (such as MSI) data one spectrum at atime. These types of data layouts, in which the entire data is simplyserialized into a monolithic block on disk that maps directly to amemory buffer of the size of the datasets, are typically referred to ascontiguous data layouts. The traditional one-spectrum-at-a-timecontinuous data layout may be well suited to access single full spectrabut shows very poor performance for access of ion images (see e.g., FIG.10 and discussions herein). However, to achieve optimal performance forthe typical selective read operations on large-scale data, such asneurosensory, spectroscopic data (such as MSI data), and so forth—i.e.,read of spectra, ion images and subcubes—, the OpenMSI system's fileformat and APIs support a number of data layout optimizations, includingchunking, compression and data replication, described in detail in thefollowing paragraphs. The effectiveness of these various data layoutoptimizations are evaluated hereinafter. In some embodiments, datalayout optimizations may be implemented transparently for the userdirectly by HDF5 (chunking and compression) and the omsi_file_msidataAPI (data duplication), allowing the user to interact with the data in aconsistent manner, independent of the data layout used to store the dataon disk. In some other embodiments, one or more of the data layoutoptimization techniques described here may be used alone or incombination with other types of data layout schemes too.

Accelerating Selective Data Access Operations using Chunking. Chunkeddata layouts are an alternative to the traditional contiguous datalayouts. Using data chunking the data is split into multiple independentsub-parts—so called, chunks—which are stored separately in the file. Astored data chunk may include sub-blocks of the mass spectrometryimaging data of various sizes and dimensions. Selection of an optimalsize and dimension is discussed herein. In HDF5, chunks can be stored inany order and at any position within an HDF5 file. Individual chunks(sub-blocks of the neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth)can then be written and read independently, which allows for improvedI/O performance when operating on subsets of the data. Since chunks areindependent of each other, this strategy also allows for efficientparallel data read and write. Using chunking, the OpenMSI system mayoptimize the data layout to enable fast access to select portions of thedata while avoiding traversal of data portions not needed for a givenselective data access. Which chunked data layout may be the best maydepend in practice greatly on the data access patterns that need to beoptimized Considering the most common access patterns in MSI and othertypes of methods of accessing neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, andso forth, the OpenMSI system may consider the following three mainchunking strategies: i) spectra aligned chunking, i.e., store a singlefull or partial spectrum per chunk, ii) image-aligned chunking, i.e.,store a single full or partial ion-image per chunk, and iii) hybridchunking, i.e., store a 3D subcube describing a subset of multiplespectra and ion-images (see e.g., FIG. 11 and discussions herein).Depending on the embodiment, additional chunking strategies may also beimplemented in the OpenMSI system.

Reducing Storage Cost and Accelerating I/O Using Compression.

For chunked data layouts, HDF5 allows the data—i.e., the individualchunks—to pass through user-defined filters while being written to orread from disk. Multiple such I/O filters may be applied and arranged ina pipeline fashion, while all filters are applied transparently andautomatically by the HDF5 library whenever necessary, allowing the userto interact with the data in a consistent manner independent of whichI/O filters are applied. According to some embodiments of thisdisclosure, the OpenMSI system may use compression filters with the goalto reduce storage cost and to accelerate data read operations byreducing the amount of data needs to be transferred via the system busand network. HDF5 provides a number of different compression filters,including gzip (deflate), szip, and LZF compression. While gzip isavailable by default as part of HDF5, the szip and LZF compressionfilters rely on optional external compression libraries and may not beavailable with all standard installations of HDF5. To ensure broadapplicability of the omsi file format, the OpenMSI system, may focus onthe use of standard gzip compression. Gzip defines a losslesscompression scheme, i.e., no information is lost in the compressionprocess. In some other embodiments of the system other compressionfilters (including szip, LZF, and others) may be used as well.

Accelerating Orthogonal Data Accesses Using Data Replication:

Linearization of the data on disk makes it impossible to achieve optimalperformance for orthogonal data access operations, here access tospectra and ion images. In some situations, data layouts that areoptimal for access of spectra may not be optimal to allow efficientaccess to ion images and vice versa. While it may seem undesirable atfirst sight, replicated storage of MSI data and/or other types oflarge-scale data (such as neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and soforth) using different optimized data layouts can significantly improveselective read performance, improve responsiveness of interactiveapplications, and substantially reduce the compute cost for paralleldata analyses. Support for replicated data storage may be implementedtransparently in the OpenMSI file API through the omsi_file_msidatainterface, which allows analysis-codes to interact with the data as asingle, regular MSI dataset. In cases that multiple copies of a datasetexist, the API automatically selects the dataset that is most efficientto resolve a given data request and retrieves the data. In someembodiments, two copies of the data may be stored, one optimized foraccess of spectra and one optimized for access of ion images. Even whenstoring the data twice, the resulting compressed MSI HDF5 files are inpractice still substantially smaller (typically half the size or less)than the original raw binary data. In other embodiments, more or lessnumber of copies of a dataset may be stored and used by the OpenMSIsystem. Further, the system may use a variety of methods to determinethe best cop(ies) of the dataset that is most efficient, among all theavailable replicated copies. The OpenMSI system may do so based on avariety of considerations, including but not limited to whether therequired data is local or stored remotely, the type of data requested,the storage layout of the different data copies, and where the user islocated, etc.

WEB API:

The primary goals during the design of the OpenMSI web API have beensimplicity and usability. One primary objective has been to theefficiently support exploratory analyses of the data via the web whilethe computationally intensive analyses are executed on high-performancecomputing resources (e.g., such as the National Energy ResearchScientific Computing Center (“NERSC”)). Most data analyses are based onthe following three data access pattern: i) read spectra; ii) readion-images; and iii) read arbitrary subcubes of the data. While theunderlying MSI datasets (or other datasets of neurosensory data,spectroscopic data, and so forth) are large, the data required duringindividual data requests required for data exploration may typically besmall.

The OpenMSI system may include a user interface module. The userinterface module may contain one or more OpenMSI web APIs. FIG. 4 is anillustrative example of the design of an OpenMSI URL for data requests,data retrieval, and an illustrative example of an applicationinteracting with the OpenMSI system. In some embodiments, the OpenMSIweb API includes five functions—qmetadata, qmz, qslice, qspectrum, andqcube—which may provide highly-efficiency access to the data, includingmetadata and raw MSI (and/or other types of neurosensory data,spectroscopic data, and so forth) and derived analysis data. Dependingon the embodiment, other functions may be implemented to providehigh-efficiency access to the data. URL patterns may be effectivelyencoded to interact with data. (see, e.g., FIG. 4).

The qmetadata call may be used to retrieve metadata information aboutwhich files are available on the server and which information isavailable in the files.

The qmz call may be used to retrieve information about the m/z dataaxis. Information about the m/z axis is typically frequently reused. Toavoid large overheads due to repeated transfer of the m/z data, theOpenMSI system may separate this information into an independent callthat may be executed once at the beginning of any analysis.

In some embodiments, the qslice, qspectrum, and qcube patterns mayprovide easy-to-use support for the three most common selective accesspatterns, i.e., read ion image slices, read m/z spectra and readarbitrary subcubes of the data. To minimize the amount of data thatneeds to be transferred via the web, all access patterns support commondata reduction operations—including maximum, minimum, average, standarddeviation, variance etc.—which are applied on the server prior totransfer of the data. This allows one to conveniently access, e.g.,maximum projection ion-images of selected m/z ranges or mean spectra forarbitrary sets of spectra, while only the final image or spectrum needsto be transferred via the web. Further detailed descriptions of the fiveURL patterns are provided herein with regard to the OpenMSI Web API URLpatterns.

In some embodiments according to this disclosure, the web API may beimplemented in Python using the Django web application framework and asthe file format, the web service is cross platform compatible. In otherembodiments, the web API may be implemented using other languages andsystems. In one embodiment of the web API, the system may transfer alldata either as easy-to-use JSON objects or as images (e.g., ion-imagesof curve plots of spectra). To also support efficient retrieval oflarger subsets of MSI datasets (and/or other types of neurosensoryand/or spectroscopic datasets), the system may also support retrieval ofdata directly in binary HDF5 or other format.

IV. Analysis API

To make use of new algorithms developed by the very active MSIcommunity, the OpenMSI system provides a dedicated analysis API designedto ease integration of custom analyses algorithms with OpenMSI. Thebasic analysis API may consist of a set of base classes, which inconcert enable direct integration of new analysis with the OpenMSIsystem file format and web API. In some embodiments according to thisdisclosure, the main interface class relevant to the analysis developeris omsi_analysis_base, which is disclosed herein too.

Integrating Analyses with the OpenMSI File Format.

To integrate an analysis with the OpenMSI file format, the developersimply needs to specify all parameter data, analyses output and datadependencies in three Python dictionaries defined in the analysis baseclass omsi_analysis_base. For the parameter and analyses data, adictionary entry may require three fixed keys to be specified for thedata entry describing the name, type and the data object to be stored.For dependencies, the system may, depending on the embodiment, requirethat the developer specifies the name of dependent parameter, the nameto be used in HDF5, and the OpenMSI file object the parameter dependson. Once the developer has entered the relevant data into thedictionaries, the analysis can be added to OpenMSI HDF5 files simply byproviding the specific instance of the derived omsi_analysis_base objectas input to the omsi_file_experiment.create_analysis( . . . ) function.All analysis data, parameters and dependencies are then automaticallystored to the current file in compliance with the OpenMSI file formatspecification and a new omsi_file_analysis object is created to enabledirect interaction with the newly create managed analysis group. Inother embodiments, different information or different combinations ofinformation may be stored to represent dependencies, analysisparameters, analysis data and other analysis-related information

The omsi_analysis_base and omsi_file_analysis then also provide thefunctionality needed to restore all analysis data from file. The OpenMSIsystem provides a user here with the option to flexibly accessindividual data fields as well as to retrieve a new instance of thecorresponding analysis class used to generate the analysis results withall stored data fields populated as specified in the data, parameter anddependencies dictionaries during the save process. In practice, thedefault analysis file format interface functions may be sufficient tosupport common analysis use cases required for implementation of, e.g.,per-spectrum peak analyses, peak integration, dimension reduction, orclustering algorithms etc. To flexibly support also more specialized usecases, in some embodiments, the omsi_analysis_base class provides a setof dedicated, custom read/write functions, which a developer mayoverwrite in order to implement custom read/write functionality. Thesecustom functions may be invoked by the standard analysis file formatinterface functions so that all default behavior is handledautomatically while the developer may only needs to describeanalysis-specific extension to the standard file format. In someembodiments of the OpenMSI system, the custom functions may be furtherextended by a developer or a user of the OpenMSI system to include morefunctionalities beyond the default ones. The customized functions aresupported through OpenMSI's transparent and platform independentenvironment.

Integrating Analyses with the OpenMSI Web API.

If the names of all relevant analysis-related datasets in the HDF5 fileare known, then all data can be directly accessed using the standard URLpatterns. In order to allow the analysis developer to quickly provideeffective visualizations of analysis results to the user withoutrequiring the user to know anything about the analysis itself, theOpenMSI system allows the developer to define custom interfaces for theqmz, qslice, and qspectrum URL patterns simply by overwritingcorresponding functions provided by omsi_analysis_base. The developerhere only needs to implement the actual data load, while all otheroperations—e.g., parsing of URL parameter, data reduction, formatting ofthe data output, etc.—are handled by the OpenMSI software stack. In manycases, one needs to be able to provide multiple different ways in whichimages or spectra can be computed from an analysis. In some embodiments,the OpenMSI system's Web API supports this need by allowing the user tospecify an optional, integer viewerOption parameter in the URL string.The analysis developer here may need to provide a list describing thedifferent options available for the qslice, and qspectrum URL patterns.Depending on the embodiment, the default implementations of the qmz,qslice, and qspectrum URL patterns in omsi_analysis_base may be designedto resolve all direct and indirect dependencies of the analysis. Usingthe default implementation, the OpenMSI system can directly expose allprior data the analysis depends on via the analysis specific qmz,qslice, and qspectrum URL patterns so that the analysis developer canfocus on the implementation of visualizations for the current analysiswhile visualizations for all analysis dependencies are directlyavailable to them. Via the abstraction provided by the qmz, qslice, andqspectrum URL patterns, the OpenMSI system can easily integrate newanalysis with clients based on the OpenMSI WebAPI. Since the URLpatterns (qmz, qslice, and qspectrum) remain the same for all analysis,and no additional implementation effort is required on the client sideas new analyses are made available as part of the OpenMSI system's fileformat and web server. In some other embodiments, the defaultimplementations of qmz, qslice, and qspectrum URL patterns may beextended or further customized based on the user's needs.

Coupling Different Analyses.

Raw MSI datasets (neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth)and derived analysis data are accessed using an array-based interfacesimilar to the standard Numpy and h5py array syntax. This basic conceptallows integration of different analysis algorithms in a pipelinefashion to, e.g., first compare a global peak matrix from the raw datafollowed by a dimensions reduction and data clustering. Dependencies toany prior analyses can then be tracked simply by providing thecorresponding h5py file object or OpenMSI file API management objects(e.g., omsi_file_msidata or omsi_file_analysis) as additional analysisinputs.

V. Web-Based Data Exploration

Based on the OpenMSI web API, the OpenMSI system can support aninteractive web-based, HTML5 viewer application. Using this viewer, auser can interactively define ion-images and select spectra to bedisplayed. Ion-images may then directly be retrieved from the complete,raw MSI data (neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth)during each data request. As disclosed in this embodiment, using OpenMSIsystem's new data format and web API, the OpenMSI system can resolvethese data requests in less than ˜0.25 s via the web even for large MSIdatasets and/or other types of neurosensory data, spectroscopic data,and so forth. In some embodiments, the viewer may use the standard URLpatterns without any knowledge about the specific names of datasets ororganization of the data in the HDF5 files. The web client is in thisway isolated from any specific implementation details on the server endand can flexibly display images and spectra for raw data and all derivedanalyses and their dependencies. Being able to view data fromdependencies of an analysis is important because, for example, in thecase of dimension reduction algorithms one often wants to view derivedimages of selected components of the dimension reduction while viewingspectra plots of the loadings vector or from the raw data used togenerate the analysis. Although the words “Web-Based” are used here, insome embodiments, the same data exploration may be made availablethrough applications such as mobile device applications, desktopapplications, with or without an internet connection.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example OpenMSI web-based viewer applicationembodiment showing the ion-image viewer on the left and the spectrumplots for two selected locations (marked by cross-hair cursors) on theright. In some embodiments, the viewer 800 may also be an application ona mobile device. Depending on the embodiment, the ion-image viewer 805may retrieve a plurality of data chunks according to the disclosure, anddelivers the ion-image to a user of the OpenMSI system efficiently. Thetwo spectrum plots 810 and 815 show intensity on the Y axis and m/zvalues on the X axis. In some embodiments, the spectra plots 810 and 815may be automatically updated and refreshed based on the respectivepoints chosen by the user in the ion-image viewer 805. In someembodiments the spectrum plots may display other information (e.g.,loadings from the dimension reduction) or be replaced by other matrixdata visualizations.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example embodiment of an OpenMSI web-based viewerapplication wherein raw data may also be displayed for users. In someembodiments, the viewer 900 may be an application on a mobile device. Insome embodiments, the image viewer 905 may display metadata informationrelated to the experiment, sample, and equipment, in addition to theretrieved image, which may be stored in a storage system according tothis disclosure.

In some embodiments, the OpenMSI system may allow users to selectspecific data or image analysis. For example, the viewer 900 may includea link 910 for selecting data or image analysis in connection to thedisplayed image and spectra details. A user may then perform additionalanalysis on the selected and/or displayed dataset.

VI. Evaluation and Results

A. Data Layout Optimization and Performance

The effectiveness of the various data layout optimizations available aspart of the OpenMSI system's file format and APIs are evaluated.Although, ASCII/text based formats based, e.g., on XML, are very commonin MSI, such formats are not optimized for efficient data storage andfast data access but rather focus on ease of use of the format.Therefore, the various optimized data layouts are compared to the commonand much more efficient continuous binary data layout. However, it isworth noting that due to the large storage and data read overheads thattext-based formats exhibit, the improvements in performance for dataread and storage requirements would be in practice one or several ordersof magnitude greater, if text-based formats were also taken intoaccount.

Identifying a Suitable Hybrid Chunked Data Layout.

In some embodiments, a spectra-aligned chunking may be able to provideoptimal performance for access of single, complete spectra whileproviding poor performance for to access of ion-images and vice versafor image-aligned chunked data (see data layout as disclosed herein). Insome instances, hybrid chunked data layouts promise to provide fast readperformance to arbitrary subcubes of the data while providing acompromise in performance for access to ion-images and spectra. However,the large differences in resolution in physical space (x,y) and thespectra (m/z) makes finding a well-performing hybrid chunkingchallenging. To identify a good hybrid chunked data layout a large-scaleauto-tuning type experiment is performed to explore: i, iii) the readperformance of spectra, ion images, and subcubes; iv) the data writeperformance; and v) the storage requirements of all k×k×l hybrid chunkeddata layouts with 1ε[128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192] and kε[1, 2,4, 8, 16, 32] using a 100×100×100,000 sized dataset as reference. Theseexperiments have shown that a chunked layout of 4×4×2048 may providegood performance for access of both ion-images and spectra. More detailsabout these experiments are discussed with regard to Evaluation ofHybrid Chunked Data Layouts and FIGS. 12-16. Based on the results fromthese experiments as discussed, a hybrid chunking of 4×4×2048 was chosento exemplify the performance characteristics of a hybrid chunked datalayout.

Data Compression. Next the ability of data compression to reduce filesize was examined FIG. 5 shows a comparison of the size of a diverse setof MSI dataset (and/or other types of neurosensory and/or spectroscopicdataset) stored using the OpenMSI HDF5-based format compared to thestandard raw binary data. Three to sixteen times compression withoutloss of data was observed. As illustrated in FIG. 5, size of theoriginal image data (shown as gray bars) are compared to the same datastored using the OpenMSI HDF 5 data format and storage system components(black bars), using Gzip compression and a hybrid chunking of 4×4×2048.For example a 3 GB image could be compressed to only 0.5 G using theOpenMSI system's file format. This means, even when storing the raw MSIdata twice to accelerate data access, the resulting omsi HDF5-basedfiles are still much smaller than the raw binary data. The combinationof chunking and compression has also shown to be a viable solution forefficient storage of partial MSI data cubes and processed spectra. Inthis case the data may still described as a complete MSI data cube.However, chunks are allocated by HDF5 during the first write—i.e., emptydata chunks are never allocated by HDF5—while missing data values areautomatically completed with zero values upon read. Furthermore, partialchunks are completed with 0's which can be compressed very efficientlywith very little overhead. To illustrate the effectiveness of thisapproach, an example of a MSI dataset of a lung with a resolution of132×149×300,000 was chosen. In the example dataset, an arbitrary regionof interest consisting of 12,654 spectra has been imaged and the spectrawere pre-processed to remove background noise. From the total5,900,400,000 data values (i.e., ˜11,800 MB) only 107,007,401 values(i.e., ˜214 MB) are non-zero. Using a hybrid chunked layout of 4×4×2048in combination with compression, the OpenMSI system requires only ˜196MB to store the complete 132×149×300,000 data cube while allowing theuser to seamlessly interact with the data as if it were a complete MSIdata cube.

Optimizing Data Read Performance.

A set of performance tests have been performed to evaluate theperformance of the OpenMSI system's file format and to identify suitabledata layouts. To evaluate performance of different data layouts for thecommon selective read patterns, the following three representative testcases are set up:

-   -   i) Read 25 consecutive m/z slices (as shown in FIG. 6A)    -   ii) Read a 3×3 subset of complete spectra (as shown in FIG. 6B)    -   iii) Read a 20×20×1000 sub-cube of the data (as shown in FIG.        6C)        The performance of the following five data layouts were        compared:    -   i) The default monolithic layout (baseline),    -   ii) A hybrid (4×4×2048) chunking with compression (gzip)    -   iii) A hybrid (4×4×2048) chunking without compression (gzip),    -   iv) An auto chunked data layout with compression (gzip), and    -   v) The same auto chunked layout without compression.

The auto-chunked data layout may use data replication in addition tochunking and compression to further optimize data read performance Here,for example, the data is stored twice using a spectrum-aligned and animage-aligned data chunking strategy (see FIGS. 6A-6C), while theOpenMSI file API automatically chooses the best-suited data layout for agiven data read.

To demonstrate the performance across a broad range of MSI datasets, tenMSI datasets (named A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J as shown in FIG.6D) were chosen to show varying spatial and m/z resolution and range insize between 1 GB up to 50 GB (see, FIG. 6D for the spatial resolution(x,y), spectra m/z value, size, and auto chunk size of each dataset) Alltests were performed on a local desktop workstation equipped with twoquad-core Intel Xeon E5630 running at 2.53 GHz CPUs and 20 GB of RAM.All data was stored on a local 1 TB regular spinning-disk hard drive.The tests were performed in serial, i.e., only one of the availablecompute cores was used in the tests. The tests were implemented inPython, and a sample implementation of the test is included inappendix 1. Fifty random read operations were performed for each of the150 test cases, while the following was randomized i) the spectra m/zvalue for the image read; ii) the spatial (x/y) location for spectraread; iii) and (x,y, m/z) origin for the sub-cube read. The 95^(th)percentile of all measurements are reported to demonstrate the expectedread performance for the different data layouts.

FIGS. 6A-6C summarize the results from all selective read performancetests, including image reads, spectra reads, and sub-cube reads. FIG. 6Aillustrates serial read performances of a common data access pattern inwhich 25 m/z slices are read. FIG. 6B illustrates serial readperformances of a common data access pattern in which 3×3 spectra areread. FIG. 6C illustrates serial read performances of a common dataaccess pattern in which 20×20×1000 sub-cubes are read. In the example ofFIG. 6A, the baseline data layout shows particularly poor performancefor the read of ion-images, requiring more than 600 seconds to retrievejust 25 consecutive images for dataset I. Even though 25 ion imagesconstitute only ˜9.5 MB of binary data, the entire ˜48 GB data volumeneeds to be traversed to retrieve the data using the baseline layout.For the hybrid-chunked data layout (with compression) speed-ups of up to˜6.3 for the image read in FIG. 6A, ˜2.6 for the spectrum read in FIG.6B, and ˜11.2 for the sub-cube read in FIG. 6C compared to the baselinedata layout were observed. While this improvement in performance issignificant, the read performance of the hybrid-chunked data layoutmight still be insufficient for many time-critical analysis tasks andinteractive data applications. This could be due to the compromise thehybrid chunking is making in terms of performance to support orthogonaldata access patterns.

For the auto-chunked data layout (with compression), speed-ups of morethan 2000 were observed for the image read enabling data read ofion-images and spectra in less than 0.3 seconds even for the largesttest datasets. It was also observed that the performance for readingion-images using the auto-chunked approach depends mainly on the spatialresolution of the images and is mostly independent of the resolution ofthe data in m/z (i.e., the total number of images) Similarly it wasobserved that the read of spectra is largely independent of the spatialresolution of the data in the auto-chunked case. These results suggestthat this approach is scalable to meet the needs of data at scaleshigher than what is typically generated today. Using this approachenabled fast retrieval of both spectra and ion-image directly from filewithout requiring caching of the data in memory. The performanceobserved is sufficient to support interactive data exploration taskseven for very large MSI datasets and/or other types of large data sets,such as neurosensory datasets, spectroscopic datasets, and so forth.

When comparing the performance of the data layouts with and withoutusing compression, it was observed that the compressed data layoutsperformed significantly better even for reads from local disk. In caseswhere the data is stored on external storage systems, this behavior maybe expected to be further amplified due to the reduced amount of datathat needs to be transferred via the network when the data iscompressed.

Performance of Web-Based Data Access Operations.

To test the performance of the platform's ability to access data acrossthe Internet, images and spectra were programmatically retrieved fromthe server to a laptop computer using a standard 1 Gigabit-Ethernetconnection. FIGS. 7A-7C are diagrams illustrating web-based readperformances according to some embodiments of the OpenMSI system. Thesefigures show the histogram of the 20,000 random single spectrum and20,000 random ion-image data requests returning a maximum intensityprojection over 10 m/z bins for each of the test cases. Very reliableread performances were observed in all cases, indicated by the compactdistribution of response times in the histograms

Specifically, FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating web-based readperformances for image dimensions of 122×120. FIG. 7B is a diagramillustrating web-based read performances for image dimensions of250×160. FIG. 7C is a diagram illustrating web-based read performancesfor image dimensions of 394×518. With the expectation that the size of aparticular MSI file (and/or other types of neurosensory data file,spectroscopic data file, and so forth) would significantly affect thetime required to transfer results, the largest dataset J (as shown inFIG. 7C) with a resolution of (394×518) pixels and 133,092 m/z bins, themedium size dataset F (as shown in FIG. 7B) with a resolution of(250×160) pixels and 116,152 m/z, and the relatively small dataset B (asshown in FIG. 7A) with a resolution of (122×120) pixels and 80,339 m/zbins were chosen. For each file, twenty-thousand images andtwenty-thousand spectra were retrieved from the server at random spatialcoordinates or m/z ranges, respectively. These requests were implementedprogrammatically in Matlab® and a sample implementation of the test isavailable in Appendix II. In other embodiments, other languages may beused to implement the requests. The computer requesting the data was aMacBook Pro laptop with a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8 GB of1333 MHz RAM. Other types of computing equipment may be used to requestsuch data. All of the files were stored on the physical, regularspinning disk of that server. The laptop was connected to a standard (1GBit) office Ethernet connection in Berkeley, Calif. With the specifiedparameters of the API described above, the qslice and qspectrum commandswere used for these tests and exercised in Matlab® using the urlreadcommand. For both tests, data was returned as a JSON structure as text.

The tests show that the OpenMSI system reliably supports sub-second dataretrieval times for a wide range of MSI file sizes. For the MSI datasetof the brain (dataset B, as shown in FIG. 7A), the average time toretrieve a spectrum was 74 msec and the average time to retrieve animage was 43 msec. For the biofilm imaging dataset (dataset F, as shownin FIG. 7B), the average time to retrieve a spectrum was 97 msec and theaverage time to retrieve an image was 78 msec. Lastly, for the largeimage of roots and soil (dataset J, as shown in FIG. 7C), the averagetime to retrieve a spectrum was 126 msec and the average time toretrieve an image was 294 msec. These results are consistent with theperformance observed in the previous section for read performancedirectly from file.

URL-based data analysis sharing is also enabled in the OpenMSI system.Using the OpenMSI web viewer prototype, a URL can be shared thatpresents the user with an interactive view based on specifiedvisualization parameters. An example view of the OpenMSI web viewerprototype is shown in FIG. 8.

VII. Details of Data Processing and Retrieval

FIG. 17 illustrates an example embodiment of an OpenMSI system 1700. TheOpenMSI system 1700 may include, depending on embodiment, I/O interfacesand interfaces to one or more imaging/recording devices 1722 (such asMSI imaging devices), the interfaces may receive neurosensory and/orspectroscopic data and associated metadata from the imaging instrumentsand other external data sources. The OpenMSI system 1700 may include,depending on the embodiment, a mass storage device 1712, which may beused to store MSI data and/or other types of large data, such asneurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth. The OpenMSI systemmay further include a storage module 1714, which may store structuredMSI data using a file format such as HDF5, for purposes of efficientretrieval and access using the system/methods described herein. In someembodiments, the storage module is configured to store the neurosensorydata, spectroscopic data, and so forth, and metadata in one or morespectrally aligned data chunks, image aligned data chunks, and/or hybriddata chunks. The user interface module 1716 may also be included in theOpenMSI system, which enables users of the system to efficiently accessneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data using Web API and URL patterns,for example. The user interface module 1716 may be configured toretrieve ion image slices, m/z spectra data, or arbitrary sub-cubes fromthe stored data chunks. The user interface module 1716 may also beconfigured to graphically display the accessed neurosensory and/orspectroscopic data, derived analysis data, and relevant metadata to theuser. The OpenMSI system 1700 may also include CPU 1720 and memory 1724.Depending on the embodiment, additional storage modules 1726 may be usedto store neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data, such as replicatedcopies of the same data and/or metadata.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example data chunking, storage and retrievalsystem according to some embodiment of the OpenMSI system 1700.Spectroscopy experiment data 1805 (mass spectrometry imaging data oralternatively, other types of large-scale data, such as neurosensorydata, spectroscopic data, and so forth, and spectra generated byabsorption, emission, energy, frequency, reflectance, resonance,molecular vibration, and/or secondary emission, etc.) may be received bythe OpenMSI system 1700. The received spectroscopy experiment data 1805may be processed into spectroscopy data and metadata 1810. The processeddata 1810 may then be chunked and stored as spectrally aligned datachunks 1815, image aligned data chunks 1820, and hybrid data chunks1825, depending on the specific dataset and embodiment.

Depending on the embodiment, queries for retrieving and accessing thestored data may be sent, and the queries could be formatted to sendrequests to read image 1830, read arbitrary sub-cubes 1835, or to readspectrum 1840.

a. Data Read

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a layout commonly used for storingMSI data and/or other types of data such as neurosensory data,spectroscopic data, and so forth, in binary form. The data is stored asa single monolithic block arranged on disk one spectrum at a time. Thislayout is well suited for retrieval of single full spectra from disk(red) but requires a large number of seek and small read operations toretrieve a single ion-image (blue). In order to retrieve an ion image,the full dataset has to be traversed, leading to poor performance inparticular for large MSI datasets.

b. Data Layout

FIG. 11 illustrates different basic chunked data layouts embodiment forstorage of MSI and/or other types of large scale data such asneurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth. Spectrum-alignedchunking, image-aligned chunking, and hybrid chunking are shown. Use ofchunking enables independent read/write access to individual data chunks(e.g., sub-blocks of neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data) and cansignificantly improve the locality of data as it is linearized on disk.Chunking allows in this way optimization of the data layout to improvethe performance of a select set of I/O patterns.

c. Description of the OpenMSI WebAPI URL Patterns

The basic URL patterns are constructed as follows:<baseURL>/<command>/?<querystring> and consist of the following threemain components:

-   -   <baseURL>: The basic URL where the server is running, e.g.        https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/    -   <command>: Depending on which data/action requested, a different        command may be used. The main available commands are:        -   qmetadata: Request metadata information.        -   qmz: Request information about the m/z axis of the data.        -   qslice: Request ion-slices (raw or derived) from the data.        -   qspectrum: Request spectra (raw or derived) from the data.        -   qcube: Request arbitrary structured subsets of the data.        -   (client: Request client webpages e.g, the OpenMSI viewer.)    -   <querystring>: List of different function parameters.

In the following, the different URL patterns and the syntax forspecifying data selections are described:

qmz: Requesting m/z Data

Request information about the static m/z axes. This function is providedto avoid repeated transfer of the usually static m/z axes information.In most cases the m/z axes data is requested once at the beginning andreused afterwards. In cases where the m/z axes for spectra is notstatic—e.g., in the case of processed spectra—the qslice pattern returnsthe intensity values as well as the corresponding m/z values for thespectra, otherwise the m/z values are omitted.

Base Pattern:

https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/qmz/?<querystring>

Query String Parameters:

-   -   Required query string parameters:        -   file: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile to be            used.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file.    -   Required query parameters when requesting from raw MSI data:        -   dataIndex: The index of the MSI dataset to be used.    -   Required query parameters when requesting from analysis data:        -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used.            Note, anaIndex and anaIdentifier are redundant and only one            should be specified.        -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset.            Note, andIndex and anaIdentifier are redundant and only one            should be specified.        -   qslice_viewerOption: Integer indicating which qslice            viewerOption should be used. Some analysis may support            multiple different viewer behaviors for the qslice URL            pattern. This optional parameter is used to indicate which            viewer behavior should be used.        -   qspectrum_viewerOption: Integer indicating which qspectrum            viewerOption should be used. Some analysis may support            multiple different viewer behaviors for the qspectrum URL            pattern. This optional parameter is used to indicate which            viewer behavior should be used.

Returns:

-   -   Returns error message or JSON object with the following entries:        -   values_spectra: Axes values for the spectra or null if            missing in the data.        -   label_spectra: Axes label to be used for the spectrum axes.        -   values_slice: Values for the z axis to be used for            identifying image slices or null if missing in the data.            This return value is optional and is only present if            different from values_spectra.        -   label_slice: Label for the z axis to be used for image            slices. This return value is optional and is only present if            different from label_spectra.            qmetadata: Requesting Metadata Information            Request JSON object with metadata information pertaining to            the list of available files, a file, an experiment, an            analysis, an instrument or a sample.

Base Pattern:

https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/qmetadata/?<querystring>

Query String Parameters:

-   -   Required query arguments:        -   mtype: Type of metadata requested, one of:            -   filelist,            -   file,            -   experiment,            -   experimentFull,            -   analysis,            -   instrument,            -   sample,            -   dataset.    -   Additional required query arguments for mtype experiment,        experimentFull, instrument, and sample:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file.    -   Additional required query arguments if mtype is analysis:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file.        -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used            (default None). Either andIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset            (default None). Either andIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.    -   Additional required query arguments if mtype is dataset:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file        -   Raw MSI data indicator (only when requesting information for            a raw MSI dataset):            -   dataIndex: Index of the MSI dataset        -   Analysis data indicators (only needed when requesting            information for a derived analysis dataset):            -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used                (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be                provided.            -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset                (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be                provided.            -   anaDataName: Name of the analysis dataset for which                metadata information is requested

Returns:

-   -   The function returns a JSON object with a dictionary describing        the requested metadata information in a structured fashion.        qspectrum: Requesting Spectra        Request JSON object or PNG image plot of: i) a single        spectrum, ii) multiple spectra or iii) the difference of two or        multiple spectra.

Base Pattern:

https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/qspectrum/?<querystring>

Query String Parameters:

-   -   Required query arguments:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file.        -   format: Output format of the returned data, one of: JSON or            PNG        -   x:x-index(s) of the pixel/spectrum to be loaded. See Section            Data Selection below.        -   y:x-index(s) of the pixel/spectrum to be loaded. See Section            Data Selection below.    -   Required query arguments when requesting from raw MSI data:        -   dataIndex: Index of the MSI dataset    -   Required query arguments when requesting spectra for derived        analyses:        -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaDataName: Name of the analysis dataset from which the            spectra should be loaded (default None). If no anaDataName            is provided then the function will try and figure out which            dataset to be used based on what the analysis developer has            specified in the implementation of the qspectrum pattern in            the corresponding derived analysis class of            omsi_analysis_base. In this case the behavior depends            directly on which viewerOption is used.        -   viewerOption: Integer indicating which default behavior            should be used for the given analysis (Default=0). Using            this parameter allows the analysis developer to provide            multiple different display options for an analysis and to            expose spectra from data dependencies.    -   Additional optional query parameters:        -   findPeaks: Execute peak finding for the retrieved spectra            (only used if format==BON). Valid values are 0 (False) and 1            (True).        -   reduction: String indicating the reduction operation to be            executed on the first set of spectra defined by x, y.            (Default is mean). Reduction operations are defined as            strings indicating the numpy function to be used for data            reduction. Valid reduction operations include e.g.: min,            max, mean, median, std, var etc.    -   Optional query parameters when requesting difference spectra:        -   x2: x-index of the second pixel/spectra to be loaded. See            Section Data Selection below.        -   y2: y-index of the second pixel/spectra to be loaded. See            Section Data Selection below.        -   reduction2: String indicating the reduction operation to be            executed for the second set of spectra selected by x2, y2            (default is None). Reduction operations are defined as            strings indicating the numpy function to be used for data            reduction. Valid reduction operations include e.g.: min,            max, mean, median, std, var etc. Note if no reduction            operation is applied, then the (x,y) shape of the first            selection and second selection have to match in order to            allow for the two arrays to be subtracted from each other.

Returns:

-   -   If format==JSON:        -   JSON object of the raw spectrum data (or multiple spectra if            no reduction is applied), if only x, y (but not x2, y2) are            specified and findPeaks is set to 0.        -   JSON object of the difference spectrum (or multiple            difference spectra if no reduction is applied), if x,y and            x2, y2 are specified findPeaks is set to 0.        -   JSON object of the raw spectrum (or difference spectra) data            including additional fields with the results from the local            peak finding (spectrum, peak_value, peak_pz) if findPeaks is            set to 1.        -   In case that the m/z axis should be not static but change            dynamically between spectra, then additional spectrum_mz key            value with the m/z data is returned.    -   If format==PNG:        -   PNG plot of the raw spectrum data, if only x,y are specified            or PNG plot of the difference spectrum data if x,y and x2,            y2 are specified.            qslice: Requesting z Data Slices            Request JSON object (or gray-scale PNG image) of a single or            multiple m/z image slices of the data.

Base Pattern:

https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/qslice/?<querystring>

Query String Parameters:

-   -   Required query arguments:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file.        -   format: Output format of the returned data, one of: JSON or            PNG        -   z: z-index(s) of image slices to be loaded. See Section Data            Selection below.    -   Required query arguments when requesting from raw MSI data:        -   dataIndex: Index of the MSI dataset    -   Required query arguments when requesting spectra for derived        analyses:        -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaDataName: Name of the analysis dataset from which the            spectra should be loaded (default None). If no anaDataName            is provided then the function will try and figure out which            dataset to be used based on what the analysis developer has            specified in the implementation of the qslice pattern in the            corresponding derived analysis class of omsi_analysis_base.            In this case the behavior depends directly on which            viewerOption is used.        -   viewerOption: Integer indicating which default behavior            should be used for the given analysis (Default=0). Using            this parameter allows the analysis developer to provide            multiple different display options for an analysis and to            expose image slices from data dependencies.    -   Additional optional query parameters:        -   normalize: Binary value (O=False, 1=True) indicating whether            the data retrieved should be normalized by dividing by the            maximum value retrieved. (Relevant only if format==JSON).        -   reduction: String indicating the reduction operation to be            executed for the selected image slices (axis=2). Reduction            operations are defined as strings indicating the numpy            function to be used for reduction. Valid reduction            operations include e.g.: min, max, mean, median, std, var            etc.

Returns:

-   -   JSON object or PNG image of the selected image slice(s).        qcube: Requesting Arbitrary Structured Subsets of the Data        Request JSON object of a general subset of the original MSI data        or derived analysis data.

Base Pattern:

https://openmsi.nersc.gov/openmsi/qcube/?<querystring>

Query String Parameters:

-   -   Required query arguments:        -   filename: The filename/path of the OpenMSI HDF5 datafile.        -   expIndex: The index of the experiment stored in the file    -   Required query arguments when requesting from raw MSI data:        -   dataIndex: Index of the MSI dataset    -   Required query arguments when requesting spectra for derived        analyses:        -   anaIndex: The index of the analysis dataset to be used            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaIdentifier: Identifier string of the analysis dataset            (default None). Either anaIndex or anaIdentifier may be            provided.        -   anaDataName: Name of the analysis dataset to be used.    -   Optional query arguments required for specification of data        selections:        -   x: Selection string for x. Default value is “:” (i.e. all).            See Section Data Selection below.        -   y: Selection string for y. Default value is “:” (i.e. all).            See Section Data Selection below        -   z: Selection string for z. Default value is “:” (i.e. all).            See Section Data Selection below    -   Additional optional query arguments:        -   normalize: Normalize the data by dividing by the maximum            retrieved data value.        -   reduction: String specifying the first data reduction to be            applied to the data. Reduction operations are defined as            strings indicating the numpy function to be used for            reduction. Valid reduction operations include e.g.: min,            max, mean, median, std, var etc.        -   axis: The data axis along which reduction should be applied            (default value 2, i.e., the z axis).        -   reduction2: Second reduction operation to be applied to the            data.        -   axis2: Axis along which the second reduction operation            should be applied. Note that the dimensionality of the data            is reduced by 1 by any prior data reduction operations            (default value is 0).        -   reduction3: Third reduction operation to be applied to the            data.        -   axis3: Axis along which the third reduction operation should            be applied. Note that the dimensionality of the data is            reduced by 1 by each prior data reduction operation (default            value is 0).

Returns:

-   -   JSON object defining the array of data retrieved.

d. Data Selection

i. Basic Slicing

The data request URL's commonly support data selection parameters—e.g.,x, y, or z—which are used to select the data that should be retrieved.There are several basic ways in which a user may specify dataselections:

-   -   Range selection: “a:b” indicate that all values in the range of        a and b should be selected. The upper bound b is not included in        the selection, i.e., the selection 1:10 selects the elements        1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.    -   Index selection: “a” specifies a single index a that should be        selected. NOTE: Specifying a single index usually implies that        the dimensionality of the returned array is reduced by 1. E.g.,        a selection of [1,4,5] usually results in the retrieval of a        single scalar corresponding to the item with index (1,4,5).    -   All: “:” indicates that all values, i.e., the full range for the        given dimension, should be selected.    -   Index list: “[a,b,c,d]” indicates that the indices a,b,c,d        should be selected.

ii. Multi-Dimensional Slicing

Several of the data URL patterns support multiple selection parameters,e.g., x and y in the case of qspectrum. These parameters are combined as[x,y,z] to allow retrieval of data from multi-dimensional arrays. Thesemantic for different combinations follows the same strategy as used bynumpy (and h5py):

-   -   All-to-all: Most combinations of selections follow the        all-to-all combination principal. That is all elements in the        selection specified for x are combined with the selection        specified for y. x=1:4 and y=1:3, hence, results in the        retrieval of the elements [(1,1), (1,2), (2,1), (2,2) (3,1),        (4,2)]. All-to-all selection, hence, always result in the        retrieval of a single or multiple rectangular regions.    -   Multiple index lists: In case that multiple index list        selections are specified the lists are matched. This means if        multiple lists are specified, then the lists may be of equal        length and the lists are merged to define specific index-pairs        to be selected. E.g, x=[1,2] and y=[4,5] results in the        retrieval of the elements (1,4), (2,4)] compared to an        all-to-all matching, which would retrieve (1,4), (1,5), (2,4),        (2,5)]. This scheme allows for selection of arbitrary regions of        interest. NOTE: When specifying multiple index lists, the        dimensionality of the returned array may be reduced.

e. Evaluation of Hybrid Chunked Data Layouts

Goal: The goal of the evaluation has been to identify hybrid chunkeddata layouts that provide a compromise in performance for common dataaccess patterns. The sustained performance for repeated selective dataaccess operations were investigated.

Test Platform: All tests—were performed using a shared login node of thehopper.nersc.gov compute system equipped with 4 quad-core AMD 2.4 GHzOpteron 8378 processors (16 cores total) and 128 GB of memory using theLustre-based scratch file system. All tests were performed in serial,i.e., only a single processor core was used.

Test Design:

To evaluate the performance of different data layouts, a set of testcases modeling the most common data access patterns in the analysis ofMSI data (and/or other types of neurosensory data, spectroscopic data,and so forth) were designed. For each selection test case, the mediantime (indicating the sustained performance on an open file) and inselect cases also the maximum time (indicating the selection performanceafter the first opening of the file) were reported. Each selection testcase was repeated 50 times for each data layout using randomizedselection parameters. All tests are performed using a 100×100×100,000test dataset. The performance of k×k×l layouts with k=[1, 2, 4, 8, 16,32] and 1=[128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192] were evaluated.32×32×128, 32×32×256, 32×32×512 were omitted due to the poorspectrum-at-a-time write performance of these data layouts.

-   -   Case 1: m/z Slice Selection: This test case models the selection        of a series of m/z-slices of the data, and extracts a set of        consecutive, full ion-images of the data.

${{\circ {Selection}}{{\text{:}\;\lbrack {:{,{:{,{{zmin}:{zmax}}}}}} \rbrack} \circ {Randomized}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {{zmin} \circ {Dependent}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {zmax}} = {{zmin} + {{25 \circ {Selection}}\mspace{14mu} {{Size}:\begin{matrix}{{{100 \times 100 \times 25} = 250},{000\mspace{14mu} {records}}} \\{{= 500},{000\mspace{14mu} {bytes}}} \\{= {0.5{MB}}}\end{matrix}}}}$

-   -   Case 2: Spectra Selection This test case models the selection of        a 5×5 set of full spectra.

$\mspace{20mu} {{{\circ {Selection}}{{\text{:}\;\lbrack {{{xmin}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmax}},{{ymin}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {ymax}},:} \rbrack}\mspace{20mu} \circ {Randomized}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmin}},{{{{ymin} \circ {Dependent}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmax}} = {{xmin} + 5}},{{ymax} = {{ymin} + {{5\mspace{20mu} \circ {Selection}}\mspace{14mu} {{Size}:\begin{matrix}{{5 \times 5 \times 100},{000 = 200},{000\mspace{14mu} {records}}} \\{{= 2},500,{000\mspace{14mu} {bytes}}} \\{= {5{MB}}}\end{matrix}}}}}}$

-   -   Case 3: 3D Subcube Selection: This selection models the general        access to consecutive sub-pieces of the data, e.g., when        accessing data from a particular spatial region of the data        related to a particular set of m/z data values.

$\mspace{20mu} {{{\circ {Selection}}{{\text{:}\;\lbrack {{{xmin}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmax}},{{ymin}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {ymax}},{{zmin}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {zmax}}} \rbrack}\mspace{20mu} \circ {Randomized}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmin}},{ymin},{{{{zmin} \circ {Dependent}}\mspace{14mu} {Selection}\mspace{14mu} {Parameters}\text{:}\mspace{11mu} {xmax}} = {{xmin} + 5}},{{ymax} = {{ymin} + 5}},{{zmax} = {{zmin} + {{1000\mspace{20mu} \circ {Selection}}\mspace{14mu} {{Size}:\begin{matrix}{{5 \times 5 \times 1},{000 = 25},{000\mspace{14mu} {records}}} \\{{= 50},{000\mspace{14mu} {bytes}}} \\{= {0.05{MB}}}\end{matrix}}}}}}$

The amount of data that needs to be read and/or traversed on disklargely depends on the chosen data layout and may be significantlylarger than the size of the selection. Moreover, the sustainedperformance, here measured by the median performance, is in practiceoften more important for analyses algorithms rather thanweb-applications, which require good worst-case performance, rather thangood median performance. For hybrid chunked data layouts the generalperformance characteristics are in practice much more stable than fortraditional monolithic data layouts (see, e.g., FIG. 12) so that thegeneral trends of the median and 95%'il performance characteristics areoften very similar.

FIG. 12 shows the minimum, median, and maximum time for reading 25consecutive ion-images from a 100×100×100,000 test dataset. Thebaseline, monolithic data layout requires traversal of the full datasetin order to retrieve ion images. In the baseline case, this behaviorcauses the full data to be cached in memory after just a few image readoperations. This behavior leads to dramatic difference between themaximum and median read performance in the baseline case. Also, in caseswhere the size of the MSI data (and/or other types of neurosensory data,spectroscopic data, and so forth) exceeds the amount of availablememory, the data can no longer be cached so that the median timeapproaches the maximum time. In contrast, the hybrid chunked data layoutused in this example requires the read of typically only 625 independentchunks (i.e., 25*25 chunks in x and y) so that only a subvolume of100×100×2048 is touched, avoiding traversal of the full data. Thischaracteristic behavior leads to a much more stable read performance

FIG. 13 illustrates, for the read of 25 ion-images, better readperformance for hybrid chunked data layouts with larger spatial xy chunksizes and smaller z chunk sizes was observed. This behavior is expected;smaller z chunk sizes imply that less data needs to be read while largerxy chunks imply that less chunks need to be read.

FIG. 14 illustrates, for the read of a random 5×5 subset of fullspectra, better read performance for chunked data layouts with largerspatial z chunk sizes was observed. This behavior is expected as largerz chunk sizes imply that fewer chunks need to be read.

FIG. 15 illustrates the median read performance for the selective readof a random 5×5×100 sub-volumes of the test data.

FIG. 16 illustrates the overall performance of the different datasetlayouts to identify the “best” layouts. In order to do this, thefollowing set of minimum performance criteria a data layout shouldfulfill was prepared:

-   -   The median time for the z-slice selection test case should be        <0.1 s    -   The median time for the spectra selection test case should be        <0.05 s    -   The median time for the 3D subcube selection test case should be        <0.002 s    -   The total file size should be <2100 MB, limiting the overhead in        file size for the test data to a maximum of 200 MB.

Based on these criteria, an overall performance score can be determinedby evaluating how many of the criteria a particular data layout fulfills(with 4=best (passes all criteria) and 0=worst (does not pass any of thecriteria)). It is observed that a cluster of 8 data layouts satisfiesthe four performance conditions. Based on these results and experiencewith real data in practice, a chunked data layout of 4×4×2048 wasselected as reference hybrid chunked data layout.

VIII. Application of the OpenMSI System to Other Large-Scale ImagingData Storage and Analysis

In some embodiments, the OpenMSI system may also be configured to store,process, analyze, retrieve, and display data with spectral qualitiessimilar to that obtained from mass spectrometry imaging but from variousother sources. For example, the OpenMSI system may be applied toneurosensory data generated by neural recordings; spectroscopic datagenerated by chromatography that may or may not be coupled to massspectrometry; spectroscopic data where the spectrum is determined by thewavelength of light being measured; and spectroscopic data where thespectrum is derived from secondary effects such as x-ray photoelectrons.Embodiments of the system may also process, store, analyze, and presentall kinds of spectral data or spectroscopy data generated from anyspectroscopic method including but not limited to absorption, auger,cavity ring down, circular dichroism, coherent anti-Stokes Raman, coldvapor atomic fluorescence, correlation (several types of 2-dimensionalNMR spectroscopy), deep-level transient, dual polarizationinterferometry, EPR, elastic scattering and reflection, inelasticscattering, inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS), emission,energy, force, Fourier transform, frequency, hadron, hyperspectralimaging, Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), Mossbauer,photoacoustic, photothermal, pump-probe, Raman optical activity, Ramanspectroscopy, transmission, reflectance, impedance, resonance (e.g.,acoustic resonance), scanning tunneling, spectrophotometry, molecularvibration (e.g. vibrational circulator dichorism), fluorescence, nuclearmagnetic resonance, thermal, infrared, atomic force, time-resolved,time-stretch, ultraviolet photoelectron (UPS), X-ray, and/or secondaryemission spectroscopic data, etc. Although the raw data formats may bedifferent and the data may have different dimensions, such data canstill be stored in data chunks by the OpenMSI system, and the userinterface module, storage module, data analysis module, and/or othervarious modules of the OpenMSI system may still utilize similar systemsand methods as described herein to efficiently process and present suchdata.

IX. Conclusion

Described herein is a system platform that addresses many of the datachallenges to storing, retrieving and visualizing large data sets bymaking advanced, high-performance data analysis and computing easilyaccessible via the web. The use of the OpenMSI's system's HDF5-basedfile format was found to be highly suited for this application.Optimization of data layouts using chunking, compression and datareplication were found to help enable rapid data access and resulted inmore than a 2000-fold improvement in image access to MSI image data andother types of neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth. Theweb-based API design enables easy to implement data access patterns withdata retrieval speeds of less than 0.3 s across the Internet even forlarge 50 GB MSI datasets. By making neurosensory data, spectroscopicdata, and so forth, easily accessible, without the need for advancedknowledge in high-performance data analysis and computing, OpenMSIpromises to transform how MSI and other types of neurosensory and/orspectroscopic techniques are used in practice and promotes thewidespread adoption of spectroscopic imaging and neural recordings, suchas MSI, as a novel imaging approach.

Having access to neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and so forth,including, for example, MSI data and neural recording data, and derivedanalysis via the web browser has shown to be transformative in many wayseven in these early stages of the OpenMSI platform, and promises tocontinue to transform how neurosensory and/or spectroscopic data such asMSI data and/or neural recording data, and so forhtare used. Thistechnology significantly lowers the barrier of entry to usinglarge-scale data, such as neurosensory data, spectroscopic data, and soforth, and allowing even untrained users to interactively exploreneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data without the need for assistanceof an analysis expert. By having the data accessible through the webbrowser, scientists can easily share their data and analysis resultswith collaborators. In other embodiments, the OpenMSI system may also beavailable through mobile applications, desktop applications, etc., inenvironments with or without Internet access. Instead of sending ascreen shot or a collection of images and spectra, users can shareaccess to data via URLs that capture the interesting observation thatneeds sharing. Now, when two collaborators are analyzing a file, a URLcan be shared that presents the user with an interactive view based onspecified parameters. In other embodiments according to this disclosure,capability for propagation of ion identifications to enable communitydata annotation and improvement of biological interpretation may beadded to the OpenMSI system.

In this example, the m/z values and range are specified for creating anRGB image of three distinct ions and the spatial location of two cursorsare defined selecting two spectra of interest plotted separately (anexample view of the OpenMSI web viewer prototype is shown in herein andalso in FIG. 8).

Those having skill in the art will further appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and process stepsdescribed in connection with the implementations disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present invention. One skilled in theart will recognize that a portion, or a part, may comprise somethingless than, or equal to, a whole. For example, a portion of a collectionof pixels may refer to a sub-collection of those pixels.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the implementations disclosed herein may beimplemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a graphics processingunit (GPU) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A generalpurpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, theprocessor may be any conventional processor, controller,microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implementedas a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP anda microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

The steps of a method or process described in connection with theimplementations disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware,in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of thetwo. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROMmemory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removabledisk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of non-transitory storage medium knownin the art. An exemplary computer-readable storage medium is coupled tothe processor such the processor can read information from, and writeinformation to, the computer-readable storage medium. In thealternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. Theprocessor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC mayreside in a user terminal, camera, or other device. In the alternative,the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete componentsin a user terminal, camera, or other device.

Headings are included herein for reference and to aid in locatingvarious sections. These headings are not intended to limit the scope ofthe concepts described with respect thereto. Such concepts may haveapplicability throughout the entire specification.

The previous description of the disclosed implementations is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these implementations will bereadily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principlesdefined herein may be applied to other implementations without departingfrom the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present inventionis not intended to be limited to the implementations shown herein but isto be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

APPENDIX

-   -   1. An example script for testing local file read performance    -   2. An example Matlab® script for testing remote read performance    -   are attached as appendices. These documents are incorporated by        reference in their entirety for all purposes, and are made a        part of this patent application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system configured to present neurosensoryand/or spectroscopic data to a user computer, the system comprising: aninterface to a data storage device configured to store neurosensoryand/or spectroscopic data, analysis data and associated metadata; afirst storage module configured to store the neurosensory and/or thespectroscopic data, analysis data, and the associated metadata as one ormore of individual spectrally aligned data chunks, image aligned datachunks, and hybrid data chunks, wherein the stored data chunks comprisesub-blocks of the spectroscopic data; and a user interface moduleconfigured to retrieve image slices, spectral data, or arbitrarysub-cubes from the stored data chunks and graphically display theretrieved data and the associated metadata to the user computer.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopicdata comprises spectra generated by absorption, emission, energy,frequency, reflectance, resonance, molecular vibration, and/or secondaryemission.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the spectroscopic datacomprises mass spectrometry imaging data.
 4. The system of claim 1,wherein the neurosensory data comprises neural recordings data.
 5. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the mass spectrometry imaging data comprisessingle spectrum or multiple spectra at a plurality of positions, themass spectrometry imaging data further comprising spectra of intactmolecules and fragments of molecules.
 6. The system of claim 3, whereinthe mass spectrometry imaging data comprises mass to charge ratio andion-mobility data.
 7. The system of claim 3, wherein mass spectrometryimaging data comprises 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensionalspectral imaging data.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface module is configured to retrieve one or more of the spectrallyaligned data chunks, image aligned data chunks, and/or hybrid datachunks independently of each other.
 9. The system of claim 3, whereinthe user interface module is further configured to receive and processAPI functions, the API functions including URL patterns for sending oneor more of: a request to retrieve the associated metadata, a request toretrieve information about m/z data, a request to retrieve ion imageand/or ion image slices, a request to retrieve one or more m/z spectrum,and a request to retrieve arbitrary sub-cubes of the mass spectrometryimaging data.
 10. The system of claim 3, wherein the associated metadatacomprises mass spectrometry imaging instrument information, sampleinformation, and/or imaging settings.
 11. The system of claim 3, whereinthe first storage module is further configured to store the data chunksin a self-describing file format comprising descriptions of hierarchy ofthe mass spectrometry imaging data and type of the mass spectrometryimaging data.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more fileformats include the HDF5 file format.
 13. The system of claim 1, whereinthe user interface module comprises an array-based user interfaceconfigured to retrieve the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopic datastored in a 3-dimensional cube format and a reduced data format.
 14. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the spectra aligned data chunks areconfigured to store a single full spectrum or a portion of a spectrumper data chunk.
 15. The system of claim 1, wherein the image aligneddata chunks are configured to store a single full ion-image or a portionof an ion-image per data chunk.
 16. The system of claim 1, wherein thehybrid data chunks are configured to store at least a portion of aspectrum and a portion of an ion-image.
 17. The system of claim 1,wherein the first storage module is further configured to compress theneurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data using compression filters.18. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more additionalstorage modules configured to replicate the neurosensory and/or thespectroscopic data and store two or more copies of the spectroscopicdata as data chunks.
 19. The system of claim 1, wherein the firststorage module is configured to store the received the neurosensoryand/or the spectroscopic data as a 2-dimensional dataset of spectra andone or more index datasets configured to record relationships betweenspatial locations and the spectra.
 20. The system of claim 1, whereinthe system further comprises a data analysis module configured to:analyze the neurosensory and/or the neurosensory and/or thespectroscopic data; track input parameters and dependencies; and inresponse to receiving a request from the user computer, retracing theanalysis performed on the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data forpurposes of repeating an analysis.
 21. The system of claim 20, whereinthe data analysis module is further configured to process the storeddata chunks, the processing comprising data reduction, dimensionreduction, feature detection, and/or clustering on the stored datachunks.
 22. The system of claim 20, wherein the data reduction includesone or more of maximum, minimum, average, standard deviation, andvariance.
 23. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising computer-executable instructions that when executed direct acomputing system to: store the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopicdata, analysis data, and metadata as one or more of individualspectrally aligned data chunks, image aligned data chunks, and hybriddata chunks, and wherein the stored data chunks comprise sub-blocks ofthe neurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data; and retrieve imageslices, spectra data, or arbitrary sub-cubes from the stored data chunksand graphically display the retrieved data and the metadata to a usercomputer.
 24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 23, wherein the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopic datacomprises spectra generated by absorption, emission, energy, frequency,reflectance, resonance, molecular vibration, and/or secondary emission.25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 23,wherein the spectroscopic data is mass spectral imaging data and inresponse to receiving instructions from a user computer, retrieving ionimage slices, m/z spectra data, or arbitrary sub-cubes from the storeddata chunks and graphically displaying the retrieved data and theassociated metadata to the user computer.
 26. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the neurosensoryand/or the spectroscopic data is neural recording data and in responseto receiving instructions from a user computer, retrieving ion imageslices, m/z spectra data, or arbitrary sub-cubes from the stored datachunks and graphically displaying the retrieved data and the associatedmetadata to the user computer.
 27. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 25, wherein the mass spectrometry imaging datacomprises multiple spectra at a plurality of positions, the massspectrometry imaging data further comprising spectra of intact moleculesand fragments of molecules.
 28. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 25, wherein the associated metadata includesmass spectrometry imaging instrument information, sample information,and/or imaging settings.
 29. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 25, wherein the data chunks are furtherconfigured to be stored in a self-describing file format, theself-describing file format comprises descriptions of hierarchy of theneurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data and type of the neurosensoryand/or the spectroscopic data.
 30. A computer-implemented method in acomputer having a processor, comprising: obtaining neurosensory and/orspectroscopic data and associated metadata from an imaging device;storing the neurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data and associatedmetadata as one or more of individual spectrally aligned data chunks,image aligned data chunks, and hybrid data chunks to a storage, whereinthe stored data chunks comprise sub-blocks of the neurosensory and/orthe spectroscopic data; retrieving ion image slices, spectra data, orarbitrary sub-cubes from the stored data chunks in response to a userrequest; and graphically displaying the retrieved the neurosensoryand/or the spectroscopic data and metadata to a user's computer.
 31. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein obtaining theneurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data comprises obtainingneurosensory and/or spectroscopic data generated by absorption,emission, energy, frequency, reflectance, resonance, molecularvibration, and/or secondary emission.
 32. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 30, wherein obtaining the spectroscopic data comprisesobtaining mass spectrometry imaging data from a mass spectrometer. 33.The computer-implemented method of claim 32, wherein obtaining the massspectrometry imaging data comprises obtaining multiple spectra at aplurality of positions, the mass spectrometry imaging data furthercomprising spectra of intact molecules and fragments of molecules. 34.The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein the neurosensorydata comprises neural recordings data.
 35. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 30, wherein storing the neurosensory and/or thespectroscopic data comprises storing the neurosensory and/or thespectroscopic data in data chunks in a self-describing file format, theself-describing file format comprising descriptions of hierarchy of theneurosensory and/or the spectroscopic data and type of the neurosensoryand/or the spectroscopic data.
 36. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 30, wherein retrieving spectral data further comprises retrievingone or more of the spectrally aligned data chunks, image aligned datachunks, and/or hybrid data chunks independently.